We are doing liveshots on a ranch outside of Guymon, Oklahoma. The panhandle is suffering through the worst drought since the Dustbowl in the 30s. As we sit out here waiting for the next liveshot, we occasionally see dirt devils whip up and roll across the plains.

There’s not a whole lot out here. As far as the eye can see, it’s flat land, dotted by a house or two and the occasional gas pump. Even the cattle have deserted us. They were out here yesterday when we were doing interviews with the man who owns the ranch we are on. Travis Baker says times are tough for ranches. Some of his friends and neighbors have had to sell their cattle to make ends meet. Where they usually start feeding cattle when the grass is gone and winter sets in, with the drought starting more than a year ago, the ranchers have been feeding their cattle since last July. That’s expensive to begin with- but Baker says feed has doubled in price.

It’s hard to give a sense of how vast and desolate this place is. It reminds me of the desert in how silent it is- except for the wind, which is constant. Walking across to the liveshot, you can hear the ground crunching underneath. The buffalo grass should be about six to eight inches by now. There are wisps of green here and there, from a little rain they got last week. But that won’t be enough to change the drought.

As farmers in the Midwest pray for the rain to end, farmers hear wish it would come. If a crop isn’t watered by irrigation, it doesn’t have much of a chance. The Oklahoma Climatological Survey says since October of last year, the western two-thirds of the Panhandle has received between just one and five inches of rain.

Pray for rain. That’s what they’re doing here. There’s not much else they can do except wait for things to change.